Colbert: Teachers are ‘destroying America’

On Thursday night’s The Colbert Report, host Stephen Colbert presented a “very special episode” of his People Who are Destroying America series. The segment featured Florida teacher Dawn Quarles, who registered her students to vote and now faces voting fraud charges and fines as a result.

Quarles claims she was only trying to instill good civic values in her students, but the state of Florida is charging her a $1000 fine under new voting reform laws enacted by Governor Rick Scott. Prior to the passage of the new laws, people wishing to register new voters had one week between signing then up and registering them. The interval has now been shortened to 48 hours, a deadline that Quarles failed to meet.

However, in spite of these dire consequences, the teacher vows to keep registering students to vote.

About the Author

David Ferguson is an editor at Raw Story. He was previously writer and radio producer in Athens, Georgia, hosting two shows for Georgia Public Broadcasting and blogging at Firedoglake.com and elsewhere. He is currently working on a book.